Israel Discusses ‘Cyber Iron Dome’ With UAE, Bahrain, Morocco

Officials from Israel, the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco have, for the first time, appeared together in public to discuss a “Cyber Iron Dome” cyber-defense system.

The meeting in Bahrain, made possible by the US-brokered UAE-Israel Abraham Accords two years ago, was largely motivated by a series of cyber-attacks from Iran on Israel.

Officials from Oman and Kuwait, seen by many as potential new additions to the Abraham Accords, also attended the conference.

In July, Iranian hackers leaked personal details of over 300,000 Israelis, obtained through targeted attacks on travel websites. 

Gaby Portnoy, director-general of the Israel National Cyber Directorate, which is responsible for civilian cyber-defense, called the conference an historic meeting and referred to the joint project as a “Cyber Iron Dome”.

The “real” Iron Dome is a defense system that intercepts and destroys short-range rockets and artillery shells targeted at populated areas in Israel.

In November, Israel hosted a cyber security conference to showcase Israeli-developed cyber security and security products from 65 different companies. At that conference, Portnoy announced a collaboration between Israel and the UAE involving cyber-intelligence sharing.